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The Principality of Liechtenstein was founded by the union of the imperial county of Vaduz and the Lordship of Schellenberg, which Prince Johann Adam I of Liechtenstein acquired in 1699 and 1712 in order to qualify for a seat and vote in the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1719, Emperor Charles VI united the two territories and proclaimed the Principality of Liechtenstein, which then became a member of the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire.

Like other territories in the empire, the principality had to raise a contingent of soldiers. By joining the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 and the German Confederation in 1815, this practice was continued. After the German Confederation was dissolved in 1866, Liechtenstein, as a politically neutral ...